Comments on: [Storybricks] How well do NPCs simulate real people?https://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/
MMOs and game designFri, 12 Dec 2014 22:24:23 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: Brian - Storybricks, and looking at what makes for interesting NPCs. | Namaste • Just want to play.https://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15860
Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:38:37 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15860[…] TalksMana ObscuraOther people picked up the story and started running with the possibilities:Spinksville talks about some possibilities of simulating NPCs.Too Damn Epic talking about Storybricks […]
]]>By: Psychochild's Blog » Storybricks, and looking at what makes for interesting NPCshttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15777
Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:01:34 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15777[…] people picked up the story and started running with the possibilities: Spinksville talks about some possibilities of simulating NPCs. Too Damn Epic talking about Storybricks in terms […]
]]>By: Killed in a Smiling Accident. » Blog Archive » Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragilehttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15695
Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:41:59 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15695[…] was pondering NPCs in a rather fine post, and I’ve been quite firmly hooked by Fallout: New Vegas, a game with an awful lot of NPCs by […]
]]>By: Brian 'Psychochild' Greenhttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15688
Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:49:40 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15688Check your email. We’d love to give you a demo sometime.

As always, I highly value your insight!

]]>By: Brian 'Psychochild' Greenhttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15687
Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:48:39 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15687The Namaste each has may years of experience in game development. We’ve thought about a lot of problems, even if we won’t claim to be perfect. As for the save space issue, our designer Stéphane Bura has worked out a system to address this. :)
]]>By: EasilyEnthusedhttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15683
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:00:06 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15683Spinks, don’t forget the problem with games that feature the ideal “1. Simulate all the NPCs all of the time and let them have mini-lives of their own.”

HUGE save files. If an NPC finds a mushroom on its way to work, a save file has to be written that the NPC put that item in its pocket – how much it weighed, how much it was worth.

If an NPC in another part of the game world finishes his breakfast and realizes he’s out of cereal – that means that every NPC in the entire game has its own inventory of items and how much they’ve been used, what their durability is, etc.

Even MORE complicated is the concept of placement. Let’s say an NPC nudges a candlestick and it falls over. The movement of that item creates HUGE save files – ala Oblivion.

I’d like to see how developers are going to work around the massive amount of save data to work around that.

]]>By: The third role: neither devs nor players but somewhere inbetween « Welcome to Spinksville!https://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15675
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:03:08 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15675[…] it does make me happy to write about ideas like the Storybricks, which I touched on last week. Because I’m an old school DM at heart. Because I still wonder if […]
]]>By: spinkshttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15674
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:59:55 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15674I wouldn’t stress too much about feedback, I think it sounds like a really cool idea and I am intrigued.

If I had any one single suggestion to make, it’d be to consider genre conventions and how those might fit into the sets of verbs you make available.

Players, in my experience, are far more likely to query the motives of an NPC when the NPC is doing something they don’t like than when the NPC is ‘in their pocket.’ This is just a very human reaction, and ultimately it comes down to metagaming – how much does the player trust the GM to be portraying the characters consistently. Players also tend to over react to any NPC which is even mildly rude to them (ie. he told me to go away!!! I will kill him!!)

]]>By: StoryBricks, des PNJ un peu plus vivantshttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15671
Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:08:21 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15671[…] dynamiques, élargissent la réflexion sur la façon de proposer ce genre de choses dans un jeu : [Storybricks] How well do NPCs simulate real people? sur Welcome to Spinksville! et d’autre part NPCs as Systems Nexus sur Elder […]
]]>By: Brian 'Psychochild' Greenhttps://spinksville.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/storybricks-how-well-do-npcs-simulate-real-people/#comment-15667
Sat, 06 Aug 2011 04:19:48 +0000http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=5702#comment-15667The good thing about being early in development is that we’re getting great feedback about Storybricks before it’s too late to make changes. The bad thing is that there are a lot of issues we haven’t really made a decision on yet.

I think the best option is the second one, where you just simulate the things that are important to the player. Personally, I don’t care if I never see an NPC sleep; in fact, it’d be rather aggravating to want to deal with an NPC right before logging off, only to find that NPC is sleeping and I’m unable to wake him or her up.

I think you also touch upon another interesting topic, how you present the info to the players. I had a question from someone who saw the Storybricks demo today where someone asked about all the possible influences on an NPC’s behavior. I said that we need to be careful, because having more influences than the player can easily track can lead to results seeming almost random. “Why is the King telling me to get out of his sight? I’ve done a ton of quests for him and he’s set to be friendly. Oh, but he has an unreasoning hatred of the color pea green, and I’m wearing the jaunty new hat I got….” Presenting the information in a way that makes sense to the player is a huge issue we need to consider.

Obviously, there are always going to be issues. We might be doing some cool stuff with A.I., but there’s no way we can accurately simulate interpersonal relationships perfectly in a game. But, I think we can do a lot better than the robots, as you put it, that we see in games today. After just a few months of work, I think we already see some deeper interactions, in fact! :)